Home Makeover: Uganda Edition

This title probably conveys a more dramatic change than what actually took place, but Becky and I were pretty pleased with ourselves with what we accomplished. I'll repost the pictures that I first took from our bare, waiting-room-like living room so you can fully appreciate the change.

On Friday we both felt more than a little dissatisfied with the un-lived-in feel still clinging to our house, so we resolved to spend Saturday changing it. After we met with a lady that will start as our house helper on Monday (which was my first interview to employ someone, and it felt weirdly blue-blooded), Becky and I attempted to find the fabric market. Neither of us had ever been. Apparently the boda drivers hadn't either, or at least didn't understand what we were talking about. We ended up at a very nice, but distinctly tourist focused craft market. Not exactly what we were looking for, but we came out with lovely placemats in any case. Also, I learned that if you really love your coffee, you can not only drink it, but also wear it in the form of jewelry. A coffee bean necklace may be the next addition to my jewelry box.

After calling for some directions from a fellow teacher, we ended up in the right part of town. We then proceeded to circle the block a time or two on foot, discovering an extensive vegetable market and several stalls selling lovely burkas and Korans, if you're into that kind of thing. Finally, after insisting to a random stranger several times that didn't need any pumpkins or papayas, he said he could take us to his sister's fabric shop down the block. This was after Becky had said, just for the heck of it, that we were German, not knowing this guy would ask so many questions about why we were speaking English to each other and why we sounded like we were from the UK. (?) Next time our assumed identities need to include an English speaking home country. 

Anyhow, we came to the shop, and they did have lovely West African wax dyed fabric. But after the shop owners had pulled out a dozen or so examples, only a few of which we had even been interested in, we decided to look in his family's other shop around the corner. While enjoying the drum group performing across the street, we picked this seashell fabric that fit with our emergent color scheme.

We also wanted some fun scraps to make pieced throw pillows for our couch, so we asked our guide if we could get any. He took us up to the tailor section upstairs in the market and showed us a bag full of very shiny, slippery, fancy fabric scraps from the formal dress popular here. When we asked if there were any cotton scraps, he said that was in a "different department" which happened to be just a few sewing tables down the aisle from where we were. After some negotiating, and taking Thomas's number for next time we need "anything at all," Becky and I left with a wall hanging, potential pillows, and intense thirst. It was really hot on Saturday.

Once home, we rearranged furniture and hung things on the walls. It's nothing that drastic, and we do still have the plastic packasport in place of a coffee table, but it feels at least a little more homey.

The Obligatory Before Picture that always comes in makeover shows:

Of course the batik on the left only stayed up for a few hours
 after this picture was taken, since it was held up with sticky-tack.
After that there was nothing on the wall.
 

Bits of News

I’ve made it through my first ever round of Parent-Teacher conferences. And it really wasn’t all that bad! It helps that I only have five sets of parents to talk to, I’ve seen them all before after school, and they’re all really supportive. There was a scare right in the middle of conference afternoon when one of my students gashed her ankle on a rock and turned the hallways into quite a bloodbath, but once she was calmed down and got a few stiches at the hospital everything settled right down.

Becky and I had our first venture into the market to get vegetables. We were bothered for a while by an old lady of very questionable sanity who kept shoving a bunch of wilted greens at us and poking us with a stick. But once she stopped following us around the market was actually fun. We got avocados, cucumbers, onions, bananas, ginger, zucchini, carrots, lemons, tomatoes, and a slight sunburn. I’d call that a successful Saturday morning.

We got a washing machine! I have never been so grateful to be able to just through in a load of laundry and let it go. And only handwashed for a couple of weeks. I guess I’m kind of a wimp with laundry. The only quirky thing is that it’s a German machine. Hopefully “Pfergihietch” means something similar to “Normal Wash” and not something like “Blow up all your clothes” but it’s a gamble. (Disclaimer: I just made up Pfergihietch, but I think there is a word that looks something remotely like that.)

You may have seen the picture of our road from when it was raining so hard. I refer to it just so that you have an idea of the condition of the road. More like a dried river bed in some stretches, and steep, rutted, and definitely unpaved. Which makes it all the more impressive that I saw a man unicycling down this very road. No joke. Although I did laugh.

Here's the picture of the road

I tried my first Rolex this week. Not a watch. A street food treat. It’s a chapatti (delicious unleavened flatbread, fried of course) with a nice hot greasy omelet rolled into a burrito-esque shape and consumed greedily in all its hot, salty, greasy glory. Yum.

More Firsts

Well, a lot has happened since the last post. Let me catch you up…

                I am now a year older. My birthday was last Saturday, and for being the first birthday I’d ever spent outside the states, it was great! On Friday night I went to an Afro-jazz concert and the musicians were excellent. Then I passed Saturday afternoon at a lovely pool with friends from school, and finished off the day with a delicious Indian feast. I discovered it’s not common for Ugandans to like spicy things. When I ordered a dish the hottest level it would come, the restaurant owner came out to see who was crazy enough to try that. I take it that doesn’t happen often. But I survived the “chili hot,” and actually quite enjoyed it! Sunday, after a packed African church service, I planned for the week of school. Overall, a very nice birthday weekend!

                My class has grown by 25 percent! Meaning the four have become five. We’ve added another girl from the states, who was at Acacia last year but has just returned from summer break. Our little class is slowing increasing!

                We also celebrated the first student birthday this week. Ju Hun decided to treat the whole school to a pizza party! So on Thursday during lunch he became the self-proclaimed “god of pizza” and was very diligent in making sure everyone got their fair share. Pizza for lunch usually comes every other Friday, so pizza on Thursday was an unheard of treat.

                Teaching history is a little less daunting. I may not have mentioned this before, but all our students, 1^st through 5^th, gather together for “Story of the World” history, and I get to lead it. It has been really fun! At first it was a little rocky, trying to figure out how best to format it and what needed to be covered. But now we’ve settled into a sort of groove of things, and it’s so exciting to see what they absorb. Last week was all about early British society (Celts and then Anglo-Saxons) and when I was up in my classroom one morning I heard, shouted from the playground, “I’m the warrior Beowulf!” That made my day.

                Our afterschool clubs began this week, and on Thursday we had the first meeting of yearbook club, which Mr. Jason (the principal) and I will be heading up. Once the students understood what it meant to make a yearbook, they were really excited. They had a great time doing a photography criticism course with Mr. Jason, and are very eager to start taking their own photos.

                Our first house guests have also arrived. The team has come from the UK and they will be with us volunteering in school for a week. The two girls on the team are staying out in our boy’s quarters (which is the same as servant’s quarters. Sorry if that term was confusing). It’s been really fun to have new faces helping around the school.

Today, Saturday, was my first real sight-seeing trip. I spent a lovely morning touring different churches in the area, on a sort of recon mission for school field trip. We’re hoping to take the students to see a cathedral and a mosque since in history we’ve just studied “the great schism” and will be studying the rise of Islam. The Hindu temple down town was the first port of call. It was really interesting (and quite sad, really) to see all the offerings and people praying to scary plastic figures. The people there were really nice, though, and even gave us some holy grapes. Next we went to the impressive Anglican Cathedral, perched on top of a huge hill that overlooks all of Kampala. It was a very nice building, but more exciting was the wedding that was about to start. Everyone was decked out in their finest, the church was full of flowers, and there was even a television reporter there. But the crowd inside waiting was eerily silent, and the bride and groom were just sitting in pews across the aisle from each other at the back of the church with their wedding party. Not sure what they were waiting for, but they seemed content just sitting there. Lastly we went to the mosque. After I, being the only female in the group, got my head all swathed up and modest, we went up the huge minaret and had a fantastic view of the city, and also toured through the main floor of the mosque itself. It was really beautiful inside, and seemed so huge!

Some other firsts...

First class pet at our school: A chameleon that has joined Ms. Capenter's class  

First Teacher Apple: I started to eat it, and then realized I wanted
photographic evidence of such a significant piece of fruit.

First time I've ever seen a dog circling a house at the
second story level. Do you see it? Underneath the small window
on the right. It was just taking a stroll out there. 

A few pictures at last

The first week has ended, and I feel like it was pretty successful! No one came to any significant harm, and I think my students even learned a few things.

The week culminated with our dedication ceremony for all the parents. All the classes presented very fun little projects. The 3^rd and 4^th grade class with Miss Carpenter presented poems they wrote about returning to school, the early years (3 and 4 year olds) did a cute little song, kindergarten recited a verse, 1 and 2 did a skit, and my class presented an artwork and prayed for the school in different languages. They all did an awesome job!

This week I am trying to figure out a more finalized schedule to settle in to, so we have a little more stability. Last week was a little strange with all the special things that go along with the first week of school.

As I promised, I have taken a few pictures, mostly of my house. Luckily I got these before our kitchen was painted on Saturday. They did a very thorough revamping of our cupboards: painting the inside and staining the outside. It looks beautiful in the kitchen, but unfortunately it also looks a bit like out kitchen threw up all over the table at the moment. That, and the smell is not quite conducive to maintaining brain cells. We’re still cooking on the stove, but to try and combat the aroma of the fumes I have been throwing cilantro and chili in everything. Becky cooked brownies this afternoon, and the fumes even managed to taint the smell of baking brownies. So we’ve had every possible orifice of the house wide open. Today was the first day that I’ve been here that I was cold!

My room, complete with jerry-rigged mosquito net

The kitchen

Dining room

Front room

The bulk of the decor in the house: a cut apart Monet calendar.

The tree collage my class made.

The wood shavings come from the construction of
the new classrooms, and the leaves have the
names of everyone at school on them.